Tricycle Q & A: Gregory Kramer's answers
Gregory Kramer, co-founder and president of the Metta Foundation, has been teaching Insight Meditation since 1980. He developed the practice of Insight Dialogue and has been teaching it since 1995, offering retreats in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. He is the author of Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom.
1. terence asks, "How is insight dialogue different from other vipassana practices?"
Do the other vipassana practices you refer to encompass mindfulness of other people or of one's own responses while engaged with other people? If not, then this is the primary difference. Insight Dialogue is an interpersonal practice; it takes place in the midst of encounter with other people. This simple difference is at once totally in alignment with the suttas and with the whole of the Buddha's teaching, and at the same time markedly different from traditional practice forms. I'll describe the traditional connection, then say just a bit about the differences.
The root teaching behind the practice that most call vipassana is the Satipatthana Sutta, the discourse on the foundations of mindfulness, or sati. The four foundations for mindfulness, that to which one attends, are the body, feelings (sensations), the mind (the heart, emotions), and phenomena (this moment of experience according to a set of the Buddha's teachings on the mind). Many methods fall out of this teaching, and those being taught as vipassana are more or less true to the root teaching, more or less effective for specific people at various times, and differ in many ways. Importantly, the Buddha taught that one should be mindful at all times, and should remember each of these four of these foundations as they arise, vanish, and both arise and vanish, and as they manifest "internally, externally, and both internally and externally." It is this last piece about internal and external that is most often ignored, and that is at the heart of how Insight Dialogue relates to traditional vipassana meditation.
Insight Dialogue is completely in alignment with traditional vipassana practice as regards all of the foundations, but it is more or less unique in how it encompasses what is outside the shell of the skin. It takes as its basis silent meditation; this is where one learns to be present and receptive to whatever arises in the moment, feelings, thoughts, or otherwise. But by taking to heart the Buddha's instructions to establish mindfulness (and inquiry, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity) externally as well as internally, it opens the practice to encompass other people. By cultivating mindfulness "both internally and externally", Insight Dialogue takes us into relationship itself, into the "between", into the "both" of this human experience. This is a huge leap, but one that offers riches to those who take it. All at once, our entire life, which is as essentially relational as it is essentially individual, is encompassed in meditative practice, open to meditative insight. The intention, towards freedom, towards compassion, is identical with traditional vipassana and with the Dhamma as a whole. For more information about the practice itself, you can visit www.metta.org.
2. Julian asks, "Being a long term Buddhist meditator, how well can Insight Dialogue help me with the integration of my deepest insights of anicca, dukkha, and anatta into daily life."
Once we understand that Insight Dialogue rests on the same foundation, the same Dhamma, as traditional meditation, the answer to this question becomes clear, even simple. One of the great challenges of silent and solitary practice is bringing insights, mind states, or any other benefits of practice, into our daily lives. There is this huge gap: we practice alone and in silence, and as soon as we encounter the excitation of another person, much of what we have established is disturbed. Our lives are thus fragmented, on edge, and we are torn. I remember this stage of my own practice all too well and feel tremendous compassion for those who experience this ragged feeling of disconnect.
When our meditation itself is already interpersonal, however, then the mind states and insights cultivated in deep practice can migrate more easily into daily life. Already, talking and relating has been an integral part of our practice. The gap is not so large. And the importance of interpersonal practice goes deeper than this. We begin to see that every encounter with another person, or with groups of people, is clearly understood and experienced as a true Dhamma opportunity. We may already know that it is an opportunity to cultivate lovingkindness or compassion. But now we see that it is also an opportunity to recognize, here and now, the impermanence, suffering, and non-self nature of this human experience.
3. Trachy asks, "Is enlightenment achievable? If not, what is the point? Isn't Buddhism or any religion offering a false promise if we can't "achieve salvation" ourselves? Thank you very much for your time."
So that these three questions can be digested as one whole, I will begin with this simple fact: enlightenment, whatever it may be, is cultivated in all situations and it will manifest in all situations, including with other people. To quote Korean Zen master Seung San, "How does your enlightenment function?"
More fundamentally, we must question how we construe these words "enlightenment", "salvation", "freedom", and all the rest. Do we have a fundamental urge to "get out" of life? This is what the Buddha referred to as vibhava tanha, the hunger (or craving) to escape. Do we think of enlightenment as a kind of eternal heaven? We would be wise to not project onto cessation (nirodha) this escapist attitude. At the heart of our imprisonment is hunger (craving), and ignorance--believing our own story, moment after moment. (I discuss this in more detail in my book, "Insight Dialogue, the Interpersonal Path to Freedom.") Cessation, freedom, enlightenment, is the cessation of these factors that intoxicate the mind. But there is another simple, here-and-now way to look at this freedom thing. Here are some words from the Buddha on this matter:
"Now, O monks, what is worldly freedom? The freedom connected with the material. What is unworldly freedom? The freedom connected with the immaterial. And what is the still greater unworldly freedom? When a taint-free monk looks upon his mind that is freed of greed, freed of hatred, and freed of delusion, then there arises freedom." [SN 36.31]
So now we come to the heart of the matter, to something we can understand here and now as possible: a mind freed of greed, hatred and delusion. Does this seem reasonable, does it feel possible, or is this what you would call a "false promise"? It may be less titillating than considering some kind of eternal somatic bliss, and it certainly does not fit with our desire for enlightenment to be a "something" that we can get. But here it is; that which naturally emerges when the heart is free of grasping and aversion. Is this a fleeting thing, present here and now and gone the next moment? Is there a path to an enduring wisdom and peace, and the natural expression of compassion that issues from such a heart? Perhaps what is most useful is to take this contemplation of freedom into our lives as we actually live them. Perhaps then we may refocus our inquiry from what "salvation" can be "achieved" to what suffering or happiness are associated with selfish grasping and with letting go.
